


Outlaws

by AzTheDragon



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, Hawkmoth will be there, Take this as an experiment, eventually..., i don't know yet, there might be Ladynoir in the future, thieves au, will add more tags later on
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-05
Updated: 2016-05-28
Packaged: 2018-05-31 11:49:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6469060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AzTheDragon/pseuds/AzTheDragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At day, they were good kids, always following the rules and staying out of troubles. Help others and make parents proud of them.</p><p>At night, however, they were different.</p><p>No more good kids, but not entirely bad either. Just... free.</p><p>((In which Marinette can't help but steal shiny things, Adrien is love/attention-starved, and Hawkmoth will be Hawkmoth.))</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

She considered herself to be a good person deep down. Always ready to help the others as much as she could, often sacrificing time of her own in favor of seeing people turn their frowns into smiles. It was a feeling that filled her with warmth and satisfaction. Something that everyone who knew her were proud of, even if sometimes they worried she was giving _too_ much.

They thought she was an angel. A godsend.

They couldn't be more wrong.

She _wasn't_ as innocent as they made her to be.

She had flaws, and despite her urges to help others, her biggest problem was that she had the uncontrollable need to go out in the night and steal things. And took pleasure in it.

Not exactly saint material.

“If only they knew...” she mused to herself, voice barely a whisper. “They would send me to a mental institution...”

Her blue eyes looked up at the dark sky, waiting with a slight frown on her mouth. A moment later, as if she had commanded it, she felt a tiny drop of water land on her cheek. Her lips curved upwards and a gloved hand wiped the wetness away. It was more of an automatic response than anything else because a moment later her face was pattered by the beginning of a drizzle.

Meteorologists had predicted a heavy downpour sometimes between the middle of the night and dawn. She had taken the information and built a plan around it, knowing that the rain would come down when she needed it the most.

Eyes turning from the sky to the roof she was standing on, the girl walked to the nearest chimney and took cover in the shadows it provided. She might be the luckiest girl in Paris, and maybe the world, but someone standing on a rooftop dressed in a bright red suit with black dots wasn't exactly a common sight. It was bound to attract unwanted attention.

And the authorities always had a particular eye on the lookout for her since that time she stole that shiny ruby ring from under their nose. Then she had gone and gave them another nasty slap in the face by mailing her stolen loot back to them three days later.

In an extravagant red and black spotted envelope like always, of course.

She might be a thief, but her inner goodness refused to let her keep the stuff.

As the memory of her most spectacular heist returned to the forefront of her mind, the masked girl couldn't help but chuckle. Not even fifteen years old and she had bested an entire squadron of guards and a complex alarm system.

The best part was that all they could get out of _that_ night was a very blurry picture of a single foot as she made a speedy exit out of the window.

The whole thing irked the police so much that she earned first place on their list, right alongside another slippery thief lurking in the shadows of the Parisian nights. She had no idea what this other person did to earn the same level of attention she had gained, but between the two of them, the authorities were in a panicked uproar.

Shaking her head, the girl looked up at the sky once again. The rain was coming down harder now, with large drops splattering all around and creating a hiss that easily covered soft noises. It was what she needed, and her hand quickly found the yo-yo at her hip.

“Let's get this over with...” she whispered to herself, moving away from the chimney and letting her yo-yo spin in a large circle at her side.

One spin. Two spins. Three, four...

After the fifth spin, her hand quickened the movement until the yo-yo was nothing but a blur of reddish light that cut the air with a soft sound. She didn't linger long though, too fearful that she would be spotted from the streets below, and let her unconventional grappling hook fly forwards into the rainy night.

There was no need for her to aim with her eyes. Somehow, the magic of her tool always did the job for her. All she had to do was hurl it where she wanted to go and the rest came on its own. And, just like thousands of times before, the jarring halt of movement from the string she held confirmed that the yo-yo had curled around something firm enough to carry her over.

One simple tug of her arm later and she was flying through the air, clearing the large gap between the rooftops with an elegant leap. The rain spattering against her masked face did little to hinder her, and soon she was standing on a solid surface once again, recalling her yo-yo with a flick of her wrist.

With the first step of her plan complete, she reached one of the small windows lining the side of the roof and peeked inside.

The attic was dark and empty, but she knew better. She had studied the planimetry of the building too well to fall for first impressions, and while the top floors were barely used, the real good stuff was located at the bottom. More precisely, within the thick walls of the bank's safe in the basement.

A smile graced her lips, and the girl placed a tentative hand against the glass. Embodiment of luck that she was, the window simply clicked open and she slipped inside without fuss.

“Lucky me, lucky me...”

The soft chant lingered on her lips for a moment before she sharply shook her head. Actually, she had to thank Tikki for her supernatural fortune. The little Kwami, bless her soul, _was_ the embodiment of luck and creation after all. From the moment they came in contact that day months ago, the little creature's powerful magic transferred into her.

That made her civilian identity less prone to incidents despite her klutziness.

But it was while she was merged with Tikki that all her luck shone through. Even if something in her plan went wrong, somehow she always came out on top despite horrible odds.

Still, she didn't let her luck do all the work. She considered herself smart enough to not rely exclusively onto it, preferring to always resort to the chances of fate as a last resort rather than her main signature.

A quiet giggle escaped her lips before she could clamp them shut as she made her way towards the trapdoor on the other side of the floor. She had no idea why a bank like this left an entire attic unguarded, and sincerely she didn't really care because in the end it would only be their downfall, but...

She suppressed a shiver and glanced at the heavy lock on the handle. It was too new and shiny to be broken, and upon closer inspection she realized that the key she would need to open it was anything but normal. A troublesome hindrance, but nothing that would stop her.

The hinges on the other side, however, were another story.

The wood was chipped, consumed by years of neglect, moths and a layer of rust that came from the metal of the hinges themselves.

Her fingers found purchase against the rotten wood and gave a very light, very tentative push.

The sound of disintegrating material filled the air as the door simply broke apart. It was only thanks to her quick reflexes that she grabbed it by the handle before it crashed to the ground, preventing further ruckus to fill the empty hallways.

The last thing she wanted was to give her position away like that.

Once she made sure that there was no alarm going off and guards weren't rushing the building, she jumped down and landed on her feet with barely a sound. She remained crouching on the spot for a long moment, eyes moving left and right and with the door still clutched in her hands.

She waited, listening.

The only sounds that reached her ears were the rain pattering from the outside and her quiet breathing. This caused a rush of relief to run through her body, making her giddy for a brief moment before she let her professionalism take control of her mind. There would be time for squeals and laughs later, when she was safe back home. Right now she needed to focus.

Carefully standing up once again, the masked girl placed the broken trapdoor against the nearby wall and slowly made her way towards the stairwell on the western side. Her blue eyes quickly moved about again. Not frantically in fear of being caught, but in search of anything that could reveal her presence.

Invisible laser alarms, cameras, night guards that took rounds through the floors...

But her luck was always with her and nothing stood in her path.

Two corridors and three flight of stairs later, the masked girl was standing at the door leading to the first floor of the bank. She hesitated, knowing that her luck would lessen greatly now that she had reached the part of the building that was most guarded.

Still, she had come that far and her instincts were still quiet. So, after a short internal debate, she grabbed the handle of the door in front of her and opened it by a crack.

She was met with utter silence and very dim lights.

“Well, so far so good...” she whispered in to herself. “Better go now. I don't want to stay here all night...”

Her gloved hand lightly pushed the door, widening the opening enough for her to slip inside the large room. Deftly making her way to the nearest desk, she crouched behind it and peeked outside. Instantly, she spotted a camera near the ceiling right across the room from where she stood. Another one in the corner to her left moved back and forth to control more ground. There was a third one located right in front of the main entrance, unmoving.

They weren't a problem. She could easily hide from the first one, while the latter two couldn't even see her. The real problem were the two cameras located in front of the elevator that led to the basement.

Her first thought on how to get past them was, admittedly, very childish. Using a desk as a cover while she walked was as stupid as strutting her way into the police department, all suited up and yelling at the top of her lungs that she was the thief they had been looking for.

The second idea was to find a way around them, but she had to discard it as quickly as the first one. There was no way that she could pass through them unnoticed. The two cameras were facing each other, and judging by their angle she knew that together they covered the zone without having a blind spot.

A soft sigh escaped her lips and a finger started to tap the side of her chin in a rhythm that helped her come up with ideas.

It was during this meditating session that her eyes returned to the cameras in question and noticed a rather worrying detail.

The cameras were dead.

No blinking lights, no soft whirs of working gears and electronics... and power cables snapped in half.

Suspicion rose from her stomach and grabbed at her throat with sharp claws. There was no way that the security staff would leave vital security cameras like that. She _knew_ that the equipment was checked every day before everyone left.

Her mind came to only one conclusion.

Someone had been there before her. Perhaps was still there, lurking in the shadows and waiting for the right moment to catch her off guard.

The sudden tenseness of her shoulders recalled her back to reality, and the girl quickly moved from desk to desk until she was standing in front of the elevator doors. Her blue eyes looked up at the cameras, confirming once again that they were dead.

She should go. Run as fast as her legs could carry her and be back to the safety of her home. Yet, despite her self preservation instinct telling her to leave and never return, she found herself... intrigued.

The level of skills needed to get that far into the bank without triggering any alarm was impressive, and she was pretty sure that no one possessed the same amount of luck she owned. Tikki had confirmed it more than once.

For the first time in her life, she threw caution to the winds and pressed the recall button. When nothing happened, she forced the elevator doors open with her hands.

She was met with an empty shaft and curled support cables with rust at their broken ends. The cabin itself was at the very bottom, slightly askew in its lodging after the fall. Whoever had disabled the cameras had also rendered the elevator useless, uncaring if it would trigger an alarm.

Face set into a light frown of confusion and curiosity, she jumped down into the hole. The moment she landed on the top of the cabin with a soft metallic thud, the girl felt a sense of trepidation filter past her control. She felt strangely excited, and her hands shook lightly as they grabbed the panel that would led her inside. It was as if she was reliving her first professional heist all over again, with her heart beating furiously and cold sweat running down her forehead. Worried that she would make a mistake and be caught, but at the same time thrilled and with a sense of fulfillment that she never felt before.

She was quiet when she dropped to the floor of the elevator in a crouch, scanning the area with her eyes. The first thing she noticed were the open doors. The second was the sparking control panel sporting four diagonal slashes across it that she was pretty sure were not part of the design.

They were too irregular to be from a single blade or more, and too careless to be from someone with a precise idea of what they were doing. It felt like they came from a large animal that just wanted to pass through and slashed at the first thing with lights on it.

Curiosity killed the cat, they said. Thankfully she was no feline, and empowered with that knowledge, she silently made her way past the open doors and down the dimly lit corridor, noticing the faint trail of destruction. Door locks were rusted, cameras were disabled, walls were marred with the light scrapes of claws.

It was as if this person was doing everything in their power to leave a mark. A clear signature of their passage that no one else could copy.

When she finally reached the safe located in the deepest part of the basement, her eyebrows scrunched into a deep frown. The heavy door was left halfway open, with the enormous lock in the center nothing more than blackened rust and charred electronics. Enthralled by the soft lights coming out of the most guarded room in the bank, she slowly slipped inside and looked around.

And came face to face with the _most beautiful_ cat eyes she had ever seen.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I absolutely have no clear idea where I'm going with this. I just had the initial idea and had to act on it. Expect weird things to happen (maybe), Marinette being Marinette (wait till she appears out of the costume), Adrien being as oblivious as he is in the show (how many girls do you know that have blue eyes, pigtails and that kind of body you should know by memory now?!).
> 
> Hawkmoth will be the bad guy, but in a... different way, I suppose. He still has his butterflies, though.
> 
> Yes, I know there are no names in the first chapter. For a reason. Marinette and Adrien still haven't decided on their names despite having "worked" for months. It'll come later.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which they have no idea what happened, just that Marinette is showing through, Adrien is a poor shocked cat, and they still have no idea what their names are.
> 
> But it doesn't matter. At least for now...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please, remember that this author has no beta reader. Please, forgive her the random errors that might appear.

She knew she was moving.

She could vaguely feel her legs carry her forwards, but she had no control over them. Nor enough will to stop. It was like she was under some sort of spell, and all she cared about were those eyes that stared back at her.

Feline. Sharp. Green like a jade under the sun and with a sort of shine that _utterly_ destroyed all the control she usually had when wearing her mask. But she didn't care. Her rampaging thoughts were like a freight train on a collision course. Unstoppable and too fast to be caught and properly analyzed with a rational mind.

Walking up to him felt like an eternity compressed into a second. Too slow, and at the same time too fast. Yet, moment she stopped in front of him, time seemed to cease to exist and everything felt like a hazy dream. Her hands reached up and held his face with the same care used to handle the most frail of objects.

“I...”

Her voice was failing her, and all she could do was open and close her mouth a few times while the cat-boy just stood there. It was as if he was under the same kind of spell, because all he did was shift his cat ears to full attention, his eyes never moving from hers.

“Will you be my kitty?”

The blurted words rang impossibly loud within the metallic walls of the room, echoing several times before dying into an awkward silence. The damage was done however, and the living dream shattered, leaving two awkward masked teens to back away from each other in shock and confusion.

The girl in the spotted suit was the first to recover and ran her hands over her face. “I'm so sorry!” She was feeling horrible and the embarrassment was clear in her voice. “I should have never asked... should have never said... it's just... your _eyes_! I like cats! But I can't have any, and... and I like shiny things! I see something shiny and I just need to have it..?”

Although... her love for cats and obsession for shiny trinkets could never explain why she had blurted to a perfect stranger to be her kitty. It was so out of the blue and so utterly _kinky_ that it was taking off guard even her, making her heart drum painfully loud in her chest.

Suddenly, the room felt so much smaller than it really was.

“I'm sorry...” she tried once again, waving a hand towards him and desperately trying to not get lost into his eyes once again. The cat-boy still seemed to be lost for words and there was this really faint blush peeking from under his black mask which really worried her. “Just... just forget what I said. Actually, forget that you have seen me. I was never here!”

She spun around with all the intent of walking out of that room, forget the pretty jewelry she had initially came for, and go home where she would take a hot bath. Or perhaps a cold one, depending on her mood. It was a brilliant idea that she was dead set on following.

Unfortunately, things that evening refused to go according to her plans, and the wall that that came down a few inches from her nose blatantly told her so. She was so surprised and frightened by its sudden appearance that she jumped back, heart racing and lungs laboring heavily for a few seconds. It actually took her a bit of effort to realize that the thing that nearly squashed her had originally been meant to seal shut the only exit of the room.

With them trapped inside.

“Oh no no no...” she muttered to herself, biting the corner of her bottom lip both in frustration and worry. “This was not on the blueprints! It wasn't supposed to be _here_!”

Shock and fear turned into anger at herself and her seemingly failing luck, effectively raising her temperature a few degrees and making her cheeks gain a faint red tinge. She could feel the beginning of panic creeping out of the little corner she had crammed it into, slowly clawing away at her sanity and ability to think.

“Not like this!” she continued her tirade adding a few kicks for good measure. “ _Not like this!_ ”

When her foot sorted no effect on the metal wall, she backed away and took a shaky breath to try and calm down. The situation looked dire, true, but she knew by experience that panicking would do no good. Still, it was so hard to regain the control that had slipped away so easily at the first signs of troubles that she found herself falling further into her dark and frantic thoughts.

“Ladies aren't supposed to kick things like that.”

Just like she had quickly fallen into panic, the cat-boy's voice had the blessed power to snap her out of it.

With her heart still racing, she turned around and focused her attention onto the bell latched against his throat. It was another shiny thing that silently begged to be taken, but at least it was not having the same effect his eyes had on her. _This_ was something she could control.

“Ladies are supposed to stand aside and let their knights do the hard work.”

Her brow furrowed into a deep frown at his words, and that smirk that she could see at the edge of her vision did strange things to her. Like being somewhat irksome and at the same time somewhat enthralling. But the distraction was welcomed and she casually waved a hand towards him. “Alright. You got any idea, Mister Black Cat?” she asked, partially peeved at being sorted into the 'damsel in distress' category. “I'm open to suggestions.”

There was another flash of white teeth and one of his pretty eyes winked at her, causing her insides to boil with contrasting emotions. If it wasn't for the fact that he might have an idea on how to get out of that room, she would have kicked his flirtatious ass to the moon. Pretty eyes _be damned_. Instead, she forced herself to cross her arms and watch as he placed his right clawed hand against the metal surface.

For a moment nothing happened, but before she could let out a snide remark and break his deep concentration, the shiny gray started to turn into dark browns with spots of green and black. The strange effect slowly spread from where his hand touched, causing the metal to fracture into tiny shards of rust that occasionally floated to the ground. There, they collected into clusters of dust that continued to grow the more the cat-boy worked his magic.

That was when she realized an important detail.

The boy, who she had momentarily dubbed as Mister Black Cat, was the same as her. Someone that owned a Miraculous. Perhaps one that seemed to have more useful powers than her lording over luck.

“So,” he spoke, breaking her out of her thoughts. His magic might be useful, but it seemed to work slowly. That, or he was taking his sweet time on purpose. “What is a lady like you doing here?”

Again, his questioning caused her brow to furrow. “I should be asking you the same thing,” she replied, trying to not show how much frustrated she was at him and at the situation in general. She supposed she should go easy on him considering he wasn't bringing up her earlier blunder. “What kind of thief enters a bank and leaves all those traces of himself behind? Seriously... _claw marks_?”

He chuckled.

The stupid black cat-boy _dared_ to chuckle and wink at her. _Again_.

“I've always done this,” he replied casually, almost shrugging a shoulder. “But they never caught me. Despite my less than stellar luck, this cat is too nimble to be caught in a trap.”

His words sparked a memory, forcing her mind to come to a sudden halt. Her arms went slack with disbelief for a moment before she held up a hand as if to signal him to stop speaking. “Wait. Wait, wait, wait,” she said. “You... you are that guy I've read about! The one that shares first place with me on the police's top ten!”

If it was possible, his grin would have spread to encompass the moon. As it was, however, it only went from one side of his face to the other. “And you're that lady that got them so worked up! The one that always returns the stolen goods after a few days!”

There was a sudden moment of realization that perhaps their meeting was not accidental at all. Not when they were sharing the metaphorical throne of the thieves. And not certainly when they were currently stuck inside the safe of a bank that had been talked about for a week on various news channels.

She groaned. _Loudly_.

In hindsight, she should have noticed the blatant bait...

The cat-boy seemed to come to the same realization, stopping his magic from spreading further. “I think... if they have been working on this trap all this time...” he stepped away from the half rusted wall until he was standing next to her. “I think they might be waiting for us on the other side...”

“That,” the masked girl crossed one arm across her chest and tapped her chin with her other hand. “Or they will soon lift this wall to arrest us. We can expect tear gas, too...”

That news seemed to not sit well with the boy. His black ears folded against his head, almost disappearing into his blonde hair, and his eyes... his eyes were looking back at her pleadingly, tugging at her heartstrings like nothing had done before.

Half of her cursed them, the other half was hissing at her to just stare and get lost again.

“I don't do well with tear gas, or any kind of gas..!” he confessed, holding his arms against his chest and appearing far smaller than he was supposed to be. “My nose is really sensitive and... it takes time and concentration for me to focus my power without actually calling it forth by name. And trust me when I say it's not a good idea to call forth Cataclysm.”

She groaned, again, because she realized that there was no other way out but to use her own magic. It was something she didn't really want to do, disliking the idea of relying on supernatural powers to do the job she was supposed to do. Yet, as she stared at those green, _green_ eyes of his, her mind came to the firm conviction that the cat-boy should be kept free at all costs.

“Let's make this clear, Mister Black Cat,” she eventually said, pointing a finger at his nose and observing with muted surprise at how his black cat ears stood up to attention. “I'm going to summon... something. I have no idea what it will be, but whatever it is, we will have to make it count because I won't be able to summon something else for a while.”

The boy did something that surprised her more than her own current bizarre behavior. He took a step back, folded an arm across his chest and... _bowed_. “Whatever My Lady says,” he replied, voice serious despite the grin plastered on his face. “Your Kitty will make sure you'll leave this awful place unscathed.”

At his wink, she couldn't help the small smile that spread over her lips.

 _My Lady_.

She could get used to that.

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which they finally chose their names.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Friendly reminder that I have no beta reader.

The summoned item wasn't that hard to figure out.

Despite being all red with black spots, she knew at first glance that it was one of those devices scubas used to dive underwater. The peculiar thing, beside the odd coloring, was that the two tanks were secured into a harness that had abnormally long belts.

“This is... not exactly what I was hoping for,” the masked girl mumbled, easily lifting the object and turning it around to better examine it. That was when she noticed that it had two mouth pieces instead of one. “But I guess we'll have to do.”

Truth to be told, she was hoping for a gas mask. It would have been easier to use, and while one of them would be at the mercy of the tear gas, the other could carry them without much of a problem instead of lumbering around someone _and_ a set of diving tanks. Not to mention that the straps were long and would eventually get in the way of running.

“So...” the cat-boy looked between the polka dotted girl and the matching item she was holding. “I can understand we can use this to breath through the gas they'll probably throw at us, but... think we can fight our way out while sticking close to each other?”

She could understand his doubts. Despite affirming that he would gladly help her out, there was still the fact that they had just met. There was no way that they could work in synchrony enough to assure their escape from the hellhole they had found themselves into.

And _those_ belts...

Before she could poke them with a finger like she was used to do with the things she was trying to figure out, the world turned gray. It would have scared her if it wasn't for the fact that her mind was just too caught up, observing as the object of her current contemplation flashed red a few times. When it stopped, she had no time to recover that the same thing happened to the cat-boy.

And then the idea just... _came_.

“Hey, Kitty,” she called, vaguely noticing that the world had gone back to normal. “How much can you lift?”

The boy tilted his head a little to the side, perhaps wondering why he was asked that. He lingered in that position for a few seconds, then seemed to decide that figuring out her thought process was not worth the trouble and grinned. “Well, My Lady,” he called joyfully, raising his arms and flexing them. “What do you need me to lift?”

To answer his question, she held up the polka dotted scuba device and raised an eyebrow. “Think you can run and fight while carrying me and this on your back?”

“Of course!” he replied, showing no hesitation whatsoever. “Such a Lady as yourself surely must be lithe. And those tanks are nothing to worry about!”

Not knowing him and the full extent of the powers that his Miraculous gave him, she found herself doubting his words. It wasn't out of malice, she realized, because the guy looked really invested into doing whatever she ordered and this mellowed her heart. Yet... the fact that she had just met him that evening kept coming back to slap her in the face.

There were so many unknown factors to deal with that her impromptu plan looked less like one and more like a leap of faith.

“I... suppose...” she muttered, looking between the boy and the polka dotted object in her hands. “But...”

Mister Black Cat seemed to catch onto her insecurity and straightened, grin fading to be replaced with a serious, but kind expression. “Look, I don't know what's waiting for us out there,” he said, his eyes finding hers to gain her full attention. “But your plan... I'm sure it will work. I'm sure it's the right one.”

She opened her mouth to say something, perhaps to protest against the sudden trust he was placing on her scatterbrained idea. But before she could do that, he turned his head away and looked at the wall that had fallen in front of the exit. His cat ears perked to full attention, shifting only a couple of times before he returned his eyes on her.

“Footsteps...” he said, a small cringe appearing on his face. “My Lady, it's now or never.”

Steeling herself, she pointed at the spot in front of her feet. “Crouch down,” she ordered, voice firm but not unkind. “I need to climb on your back and you need to find a good balance or we'll just stumble around.”

“As you wish, My Lady,” the boy with feline eyes replied, immediately crouching down on his hands and knees. “But be quick. I can hear them taking position. I think... A dozen? Maybe a little more. The wall is blocking most of the sounds and even my fine hearing can't catch much with it in the way.”

The masked girl nodded and shouldered the harness holding the air tanks together, careful to keep the long belts from being caught somewhere. Then she hesitated for a moment, her eyes looking down at the crouching boy and mind going a mile a minute with unnecessary thoughts, like noticing his tail-belt and how it tapped rhythmically against the ground.

She actually had to squeeze her eyes shut and force her focus back onto the task at hand. “Alright,” she whispered, sitting... actually straddling the cat-boy on his back and locking her legs around his waist while her hands went to his shoulders.“Think you can stand up?”

It was surprising how easily he stood back up, taking only a few seconds to find the perfect balance and standing firm on his two feet. He looked comfortable, as if the girl and air tanks clinging against his back weighted nothing.

“Here,” the girl called, grabbing one of the belts and making sure that it moved over both their right shoulders while making sure to not fall off. She repeated the operation with the strap on the opposite side before waving a hand to the others that were hanging loosely near her hips. “You'll have to fasten them yourself and make sure they are well adjusted.”

“You know,” the boy spoke softly, as if afraid that whatever he was going to say would be heard from the outside. Like he had been instructed, he was quickly fastening the belts together, making sure that the clasps held. “I can see the benefits of this plan. This way we can't be separated and none of us will lose the supply of fresh air. Amazing thinking, My Lady!”

As he tugged at the belts one last time to make sure that they were tight enough, the girl found herself pressed against his back. For a moment all she could do was flail her arms wildly, mind desperately trying to think about everything but how warm it felt. And how the fuzzy dream-like sensation was coming back with its alluring, wispy tentacles.

It was such a weird situation that she bet no one would believe her unless they were seeing it with their own eyes.

Heck, she had troubles believing it herself, and she was _living_ it. Once out and back home, she would have to talk to Tikki about all this weird stuff that was going on.

She was a thief, after all, not a princess in a fairy tale.

“My Lady?” the boy asked, turning his head enough so that one of his green eyes could look at her from over his shoulder. “Do you have a name? I mean, obviously you do, but... how do you call yourself when wearing the mask?”

The question surprised her and she found herself pondering at it, all the while ignoring the wall as it was being slowly raised. Truth to be told, she had never thought about a name for her masked persona, always believing that she would never be caught beside those brief lucky glimpses. And since she always worked alone, she never felt the need to have one either.

But the cat-boy had raised an intriguing point and she found her mind going through several possibilities.

“I... uh... I don't have a name. Yet?” she replied, forcing down the urge to cringe at her lack of certainty. “Maybe I should go with something that define me? But what could? All I know is that I... ah... have a thing for luck?”

She refused to tell him that she actually _lorded_ over it. There was no way that he would believe such a thing, or even if he did, there was always the chance of him trying to take advantage of it. Not that he looked like the type. He seemed pretty content in being ordered around and pleasing her with his stupid grins and pretty eyes.

And she was getting off on a tangent again. Sure, she wasn't blabbing it out, but she was still getting distracted and she mentally cursed at her inability to keep her mind on track when faced with shiny things. She made a mental note to gift him with a pair of shades the next time they crossed paths.

“Maybe... maybe... uh...” her eyes moved about, looking everywhere for something, anything, that could help her come up with a name that would satisfy her. “Lady... Lady... uhh... Ladybug?”

“Well, Ladybug,” the boy acknowledged the name with a grin. “It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm...”

Just like her, he seemed to not have never bothered with a name for his thief alter-ego until that moment. Still, a few seconds later his grin returned in full force and the newly named Ladybug gripped at his shoulders perhaps a bit more forcefully than she had initially intended.

“I'm Chat,” his voice rang into her ears louder than the shrill sound of metal sliding against metal. “ _Chat Noir_ , at your service!”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please, if you appreciate my work, kindly leave a comment?


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which things finally start to move.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not entirely happy with this chapter. The first draft was HORRIBLE, the second was BAD, the third was MEH.  
> That makes the final piece "I'M TOO TIRED TO CARE. ANY MORE AND MY EYES WILL BLEED NOT TO MENTION I CAN'T DO ANY BETTER THAN THIS WITH THIS PIECE OF THING!"
> 
> Ahem. Friendly reminder that my works have not betaed by external help. I'm pretty sure that at 3am I am unable to catch any error or weird phrasing. Especially after spending 4 hours on heavily editing this beast.

“Put your hands up in the air and get to your knees!”

The bellowed order painfully echoed against the walls and for such a length of time that it felt it went on forever. It made Chat Noir wince and fold onto himself like a scared puppy. His black cat ears, cute things that they were, twisted back and almost disappeared into his wild blond hair.

Ladybug was not sure if it was her motherly instinct talking or a sudden bout of random possessiveness, but she decided then and there that she hated seeing her kitty in pain or afraid. Because he had willingly agreed to be her kitty, and there was no way in hell she would let anyone harm him.

Suddenly, she realized this was yet another thing to add to the ever growing list of things to talk about with Tikki and that her rambling brain had to be brought back under control.

When the danger of her brain doing a spectacular explosion was adverted, she tightened her arms around his shoulders just enough to remind him that he wasn't alone in this.

Her initiative was rightly guessed, and he seemed to draw strength from her reassurance. He stood straight up and regarded the armed policemen with a sharp glare intensified by his feline eyes. If for Ladybug they were beautiful gems that she had to protect at all costs, for Chat Noir's enemies they must look like some sort of demoniac presence, because every single man in front of them froze in uncertainty.

Still, the tension that came to be was almost palpable and Ladybug felt all her worries rear their ugly heads. After all, you did not joke around a full squad of _Le RAID_ and hope to make it out unscathed.

The specialists present in that room weren't as world famous as their American counterpart, _the SWAT_ , but they were as efficient as their oversea 'cousins'. They were capable of solving any kind of situation with surgical precision and with enough time to spare for a leisure coffee at the corner shop if they so wished.

A wrong move and both thieves would find themselves testing the words of their Kwami about the magical suits being bulletproof. Although Ladybug trusted Tikki, she was in no way mentally prepared for such a thing.

And she was suspecting Chat was having similar thoughts considering he had broken his glare to glance down at his feet.

Surprisingly though, after a moment of uncertainty he was the first to move, breaking the unnerving silence by lazily raising his arms up into the air. “My, my,” he drawled, one corner of his mouth pulling up into a half smirk while his eyes shone with badly concealed mirth. “If I knew we'd get such a large crowd of fans, I would have brought a pen for the autographs. Don't you agree with me, Ladybug?”

Ladybug was about to reply, yet she found herself halting just before the first word could come out of her mouth. She could feel Chat Noir's body tense, and no matter how much his posture screamed surrender, she _knew_ he was preparing to leap.

A moment later, the boy fell to his knees and placed his hands onto the ground as if he was preparing to lay face down. Ladybug found herself horizontally slumped against his back, the air tanks on top of her almost throwing both out of balance and into an undignified sprawl onto the floor. She was pretty sure this could have been very comical and embarrassing if there weren't so many weapons aiming at her.

“Actually, I'd rather have no fans at all,” Ladybug muttered against his shoulder, replying to Chat's quip with her improvised one. “I don't like the spotlight.”

With one ear twisted to face the girl and the other locked onto the approaching men, Chat Noir chuckled. His tail tapped the ground behind him with a precise rhythm, as if counting the passing seconds until it was the right moment to spring into action.

“Ah, but My Lady! I believe you don't need one!” He sounded abnormally happy considering the fact that they were being surrounded by highly trained and heavily armed men. “Do you know why?”

Ladybug gave an exasperated sigh and couldn't help smacking her forehead against the boy's shoulder. “Alright, Chat Noir...” she said after a few moments of internally wondering why they where still sitting there instead of running as far away and as fast as possible. “ _Why?_ ”

“It's because you have your own shine!”

Ladybug could feel Chat's wide grin in his words, but had no time to do anything about it as she felt the boy jump into a pounce with the same skills of a true hunting feline. If it wasn't for the harness keeping them together, she would have lost her grip and fallen backwards in a daze.

Instead they sailed forwards, their trajectory carrying them towards the middle of the armed men. Their surprise was so great that Chat was able to dart past them, nimbly skidding around a sea of legs and arms until he was at their backs. A few seconds later he was already running for the door on all his fours as fast he could.

Still, that same lapse of time was also enough for the trained men to finally react to the sudden attempt of escape and take action.

The first bullet that was fired hit the wall above the fleeing duo and it forced Chat to jump to the side in hope of becoming less of an easy target. It was only a warning shot meant to scare them into a halt, but when the cat themed thief showed no sign of stopping, the men of _Le RAID_ launched two canisters into the fugitives' direction.

Apparently, their 'Plan B' involved them trying to suffocate the two thieves into submission rather than chasing them everywhere.

With the small space of the safe room and even smaller space of the corridor that led to the only elevator, the air quickly became filled with the harmful gas. It made Chat Noir crawl into the nearest corner with a racing heart and a worried whine coming out of his closed lips. He pressed his side against the wall and slapped one hand over his mouth and nose to keep the harmful smoke away. His other one was flailing wildly at his side in search of one of the two mouthpieces he knew were hanging there.

Thankfully, Ladybug had found both and was pressing the device she wasn't using onto his palm. She felt his clawed fingers curl around the item and lingered for a moment to make sure he had a good grip, then replaced her arm around his shoulders so that she didn't jostle too much if he had to move.

Her summoned item was truly a godsend because they could breath normally through all the smoke. Still, a set of scuba tanks was not like the masks the men were wearing and it left the eyes of the two young thieves exposed to the irritating gas. This caused their sight to become heavily blurred with tears and Chat Noir had to resort to his fine hearing to navigate through the room fast enough to not be caught.

They somehow emerged into the corridor, crashing against the opposite wall for a moment until the first shouts of warning forced the boy into movement again. Half blinded, he followed the wall until he reached the elevator's cabin, where he crouched low right below the still open hatch. Admittedly, the passage was barely large enough to let a single grown adult climb through, but thanks to Chat's strength and their suits' durability, a powerful enough jump had them burst through the trapdoor by denting, deforming and outright shredding the metal at the edges.

With the air in the shaft clear of any tear gas, Ladybug spat the mouthpiece and was too worried to wonder why her summoned item hadn't dissipated like it should have done after its intended use. “Chat, go up! Last floor!” Her voice was croaky, yet one of her hands was already patting the boy's shoulder to gain his attention. “Grab a cable, then cut it. Let the counter-weights carry us up!”

It also went unsaid that this would trap an entire squadron of _Le RAID_ into the basement until help arrived. Hopefully they were the only deployed party, giving them time to figure out what to do next without the pressure and fear of being hunted by professionals.

“As My Lady wishes,” Chat replied with his own croak. He was blinking furiously, with multiple rivulets of tears running down his masked face.

Despite that, he still reached for one of the cables, easily finding it in the darkness while his free hand touched the others. The corruption was slow but deliberate, and soon the smell of rust became predominant in the enclosed space. It even seemed to overpower the harmful gas that was coming up through the trapdoor in curling wisps.

The first cable to snap was somewhere beside them, producing a loud metallic _thwack_ that echoed against the walls and made their bones shake. Then came the others. They easily fell prey to Chat's powers until all that was left was the one the boy was grasping, straining loudly under the weight of both the elevator and the counter-weights.

“Do it,” Ladybug whispered into his human ear, her breath almost playful against the hair hiding it. “Cut it, Kitty.”

Oddly emboldened by her nickname for him, Chat Noir grabbed the final cable below his other hand and let his powers crawl into the iron as fast as he could. The following sounds of groaning metal alerted the men below that something heavy was breaking, making them back away from the elevator in fear of being hurt. That left the two thieves free to be dragged upwards the moment the cable finally snapped under the straining and corruption.

“Your smart thinking has sure lifted up my mood!” The boy exclaimed loudly and happily. He even laughed as they reached the last floor's doors, jumping onto the ledge just before crashing against the wheels and machinery located on the ceiling. Even with his precarious balance and heavy load on his back, the boy easily opened them and walked into the surprisingly silent corridor.

Ladybug was going to reply with another quip, but she stopped and tried to look at Chat's face from her position on his back. “You...” she paused for a moment, feeling like her brain had finally given up and had gone on vacation. “Please tell me that you just didn't make a pun...”

His reply was another one of his Cheshire grins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm dead.  
> Please leave me a comment to resurrect me?


End file.
